Order in the Court: Women balance passion for law and devotion to family

12:44 AM,
Aug. 23, 2013

Tiffany Taylor

Written by

Renee Bookout
BellaMagazine.com

The year was 1869, and Arabella Mansfield of Iowa had just made history as the first woman in the United States to become a lawyer. Remarkably, she was permitted to take the bar exam (which she passed with flying colors) despite the fact that a law was on the books restricting applicants to white males 21 and older.

Later that year, Iowa changed the law to allow women and minorities to sit for the bar exam.

Fast-forward nearly 150 years, and women make up almost half of all incoming law school classes, and three women currently serve as U.S. Supreme Court justices. ...